AI is forcing a skills reset across industries as every job becomes AI-enabled

For modern professionals AI is about smarter habits, not shortcuts

Experts from Accenture, BearingPoint and Workhuman discuss how AI and automation can positively impact working life. For many professionals artificial intelligence (AI) and automation have the power to transform day-to-day work. David Burke, a senior director of global talent acquisition and the employer brand at Workhuman explained that this transformation is effective not because it is 'futuristic' but because it meets the needs of an evolving workforce. "It's much more practical than that," he told SiliconRepublic.com. "We're using AI across our internal systems to reduce manual work, improve decision-making and help teams move faster. The goal isn't to replace roles, it's to remove friction. "In areas like hiring, performance enablement and cross-functional collaboration, automation is taking care of the repeatable tasks and surfacing better data. That means our teams spend less time chasing information or managing processes and more time solving problems and focusing on work that actually moves the business forward." This is a viewpoint shared by Wendy Walsh, a talent and organisation lead at Accenture, who noted that AI and automation have not only altered the tools she uses in the workplace, but have actually changed how she personally "shows up at work". She said, "On a very practical level, I use AI every single day to think better. I use it to explore ideas, challenge my own assumptions, shape early thinking and get to a stronger point of view before anything ever becomes a document. For me, it's less about productivity shortcuts and much more about cognitive support." Walsh added, "It helps me move faster to insight and clarity, not simply faster to output. The biggest difference is that my time has shifted away from preparing information and towards interpreting it." For BearingPoint's Barry Haycock, who is a senior manager of data analytics and AI, when it comes to the topic of AI and automation, one subject that has dominated the conversation is agentic AI. He explained, he has noticed in the last 12 months or so, more and more people are choosing to use AI as an augmentation tool as opposed to automation. He said, "In my personal day-to-day, I use AI to draft code I plan to write, or as a sounding board to discuss and tease out ideas before I start developing a slide deck or a document. "In many areas, people can use AI to perform a detailed search, for example of in-house documents, or to summarise their upcoming week and help them plan their goals. I find it useful too for now flagging upcoming deadlines and prioritising them for me every Monday." Amid the evolution brought about by the proliferation of advanced technologies and processes in the working ecosystem, comes the need for a modern upskilling strategy. New day, new challenges For Walsh, soft skills have grown in importance, with AI acting as a core catalyst. She said, "As AI becomes part of everyday work, the qualities that really differentiate people are human ones. Skills in AI and data are important and technological literacy will increasingly be expected of everyone. But they're not enough on their own. "Looking ahead to 2030, many of the fastest-growing core skills are deeply human. AI can analyse, generate and optimise at incredible speed. But it can't build trust. It can't create belonging. "It can't decide what matters most in a moment of uncertainty. Technology is a powerful enabler, but it still needs people to shape it, question it and use it with purpose. The organisations that thrive will be those that invest just as seriously in human capability as they do in AI." Specifically in software-development, MLOps, and AIOps roles, business analytics is becoming the most important skill, noted Haycock, who explained that, while the latest frontier AI models are excellent at coding or creating a script that a developer might need, the developer really needs to explain what's required clearly. He said, "This is traditionally considered a soft skill and in times gone by a developer might write the code to explain their thoughts. I've noticed that "explain-in-plain-language" skills are developing across many technical roles lately. "Technical skills will always matter", said Burke, "but they're increasingly learnable at speed. AI can help people acquire knowledge and capabilities faster than ever. What's harder to automate and therefore more valuable, are human skills." He noted skills such as judgement, communication, the ability to trust, context-setting, ethical decision-making and leading through ambiguity are among those that should be prioritised, especially as professionals are further expected to adopt and understand tech advancements. "As technology accelerates, the differentiator won't be who knows the most. It will be who can interpret, connect and lead. The irony is that the more advanced AI becomes, the more deeply human capability becomes alongside it. That's what ultimately drives sustained performance." Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Solution Providers Say AI Is Forcing A Skills Reset Across The IT Channel: 'Every Job Is Becoming An AI-Enabled Job'

'No one who wants to work in tech can just stay in their lane anymore. This is at a different level. It's about the way we work,' says Ryan Barton, chief innovation officer at New Charter Technologies. As AI transforms the way work gets done, executives at some solution providers say one disruption is a redefinition of the skills that matter in today's labor market. In collaboration with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Accenture developed the Wharton-Accenture Skills Index, a report measuring supply and demand for skills across roles and industries as well as how AI is redistributing value. "We see a lot of labor impact right now, and there's a pretty big shift in how the market is organizing," James Crowley, global products industry practices chair at Dublin-based solution provider giant Accenture, and co-author of the Wharton-Accenture report, told CRN in an interview. "Specifically this notion and hypothesis that job titles will matter less and skills will matter more." One of the findings of the research is what Accenture, No. 1 on CRN's 2025 Solution Provider 500, called a "signaling gap," where leadership, communication and teamwork remain important, but there's a shift being seen to more execution‑oriented skills. These include "contextual judgment, validation, technical depth, scientific fluency and the ability to apply expertise within real‑world environments," skills the report suggest will become more valuable, not less, as AI takes on more work. For solution providers, this means using AI to handle routine, repeatable cognitive work and using humans for judgment, coordination compliance and execution. [Related: 10 AI Startup Companies To Watch In 2026] Not all required skills are soft skills though. Solution providers like Accenture continue to see demand in data science, software engineering and AI infrastructure roles. "If I was someone building skills this year, I'd want deep technical skill in AI infrastructure or agentic modeling, applied in an industry or functional context, and strong critical problem‑solving," Crowley said. But just as important is adaptability. "The velocity at which skills are changing is quite fast," he said. "Your ability to show that you can evolve, that you're a self‑learner...that's paramount." According to Mark Williams, the new must-have skill for hiring in an AI-native world is the ability to bridge technology and business outcomes. "That's the No. 1 requirement," Williams, senior consultant, IPED, The Channel Company, told CRN. "It's not enough to manage a network. You have to explain what the technology is going to do for the business, tied to workloads, tied to ROI. People don't just buy agents to buy agents." IPED is the channel consulting arm of CRN parent The Channel Company. "If you don't train the next generation, you won't have the next level of leaders," he said. "People aren't going away. The expectations are just changing." Internally, Accenture is re‑examining hiring, interviewing and performance management processes through a skills‑first lens and "investing heavily" in learning and development programs, according to Crowley. Leadership‑led learning also plays a role, with leadership expected to adopt AI tools in their own workflows. "We're taking this skill transition very seriously," Crowley said. "Employers are educators of the future, but you have to create space for learning. We're all running pretty fast." For Conduent, AI has moved from a capability to an expectation across the entire workforce. "You can't look at AI as a niche skill anymore," Anthony Marino, chief administrative officer at the Florham Park, N.J.-based solution provider, told CRN. "It really has to be a necessary skill for all employees." Almost every role at Conduent includes a technical component, according to Marino, and much of that technology is embedded with AI. Because of that shift, HR leaders must now rethink how they hire, assess and reskill workers, especially as the pace of change accelerates. "Heads of HR are trying to figure out, how do I reskill the workforce? How do I think about these skills when I'm selecting new candidates?" he said. For 2026, Conduent's hiring processes will emphasize digital fluency, learning agility and adaptability, not just familiarity with specific tools. "Everybody's going to have to be a self‑paced learner," said Marino (pictured above). "That means every one of us has to reinvent ourselves. If you're known as a great problem solver and you use AI as a tool to enhance that, you'll always be valuable." Another key skill is AI literacy. Both executives say the question is no longer whether employees will use AI, but how well they use it and whether they can translate that into business outcomes for customers. "Every job is becoming an AI-enabled job," Ryan Barton, chief innovation officer at Denver-based MSP New Charter Technologies, told CRN. "The question is whether you're willing to step into that next suit and use it wisely." For Barton, AI literacy now sits at the foundation of hiring. His team works at the intersection of AI automation and client delivery, and a recent employee survey showed how strongly staff felt the tools enhanced creativity. "We get to paint our jobs in new ways now," he said. He echoed both Marino and Crowley in that adaptability is a key skill he's hiring for in 2026. "It's not just, 'I want to learn the new technology.' It's, 'I'm the person who makes this outcome happen, and I'll creatively figure out how to do it,'" he said. "No one who wants to work in tech can just stay in their lane anymore. This is at a different level. It's about the way we work." At Trace3, AI literacy is also expected across the organization. But for client-facing roles, the hiring bar is even higher. "If we're looking for someone to be client facing, we're looking for a specific skillset," said Melissa Maldonado, vice president of people and talent strategy at Trace3. "On the consulting and engineering side, we want folks who have experience designing and implementing AI solutions." For traditional IT roles, AI experience may not always be mandatory, she said, but it makes candidates stand out. "If you have AI experience, it probably puts you right at the top of the candidate list," she said. "But for general IT roles, it's not always the leading necessity." Internally, the Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider has pushed for companywide AI engagement. Employees are encouraged to spend at least an hour a day working directly with AI tools. They even have interns majoring in AI. But even as technical AI expertise becomes more valuable, executives still say human judgment and people skills are growing more important. "There's always that core of humble, hungry and smart," Barton said. "People who can do the work well, be people-oriented and have good values. That's becoming even more important in the age of AI because we really need to trust people's discretion and decisions with this growing power. "The ability to guide people through change because of AI, that skillset is going to be in massive demand," he added.